1970MaleJaxFL

My surgery date is set for April 28th. Anybody want to race me to the 100 lbs. down mark?

I might need to see photos to fully understand the issues involved.

Did everybody dive into the pre-op liquid diet cold turkey or did you have a pre-diet before the pre-op diet? All of the talk and thoughts on the lapband process must have soaked in because I started chewing the bajesus out of my food the other day. It kind of kicked off a pre-diet before I start my liquid diet on the 13th. All of my meals since have been about 25-50% of what I normally eat in each meal and have made me feel stuffed. Tonight I had 1 piece of pizza and some salad and was actually full whereas I used to eat around 4 in a sitting. What adjustments did you guys make prior to starting your liquid diet?

I have been reading a lot of posts on here and started to wonder what the records are for fastest weight loss with the band. Here are some of the quickest losses I've seen, anybody got these beat?

100 lbs.-6 months

161 lbs.-9 months

200 lbs.-25 months

At least one biggest loser champion was a guy who started with a BMI of 45 and he lost at a pace equal to 12% of their total weight per month. They do it in weekly increments but over months he was close to this pace:

Start 365

at 1 Month-321

at 2 Months-283

at 3 Months-249

at 4Months-219 (he lost 40% of his total body weight in 4 months!)

Since they work those Biggest Loser people out like maniacs, I figure a realistic fastest pace for a normal schmo with a desk job and a lap band is about half as fast (6% of total body weight per month). What do you guys think? Has anybody ever dropped 40% of their starting weight in 8 months with a band?

How about an update on US - based folks. I see several self pay options in the $9K - $10k range now. Anything in the US under $9K?

I've been researching and have found one viable option at that price point. Anybody else know of a less expensive option?

I'm curious about this too. I have massive amounts of game but it doesn't work when uh, you're massive also.

I can add a little to this topic. My weight is about 75-100 lbs. higher than most people thinking because of my build (6' 3"). I know that when I went from 380 lbs. to 298 lbs. on Adkins, I went from being invisible in bars to being able to bed some pretty attractive women (6's-7's out of 10). But I also know that over a certain weight (in my case 320), I became invisible again. So sitting here at 367 about to get banded soon, I'm looking forward to getting some 9's and 10's (and a good smart, nice wife) at 235 lbs.

On a side note, I hang out with the most incredible looking woman I've ever seen. She is about 10 years younger and looks like a cross between Angelina Jolie and Katie Holmes. She turns heads wherever she goes (male and female). I can see other merely hot women give her the 'damn, I'd hit that' look. I'm hopeful that I can actually make something happen there after 4 years in the friendzone (nobody scores in the friendzone).

I'm in the area. Nice to see so many locals on here. I'm hoping to be banded soon but my employer has it as a 'specific exception' so UHC won't cover it. Maybe self pay, if I can scrape up the dough.